Awesome! You're a participant in a Best-Self Review® cycle. Your role as a participant may include completing a self review, peer review(s), an upward review, and/or manager review(s).
- Self review: You will complete a review about yourself.
- Peer review(s):
- Participant initiated peer review: You will nominate peers to review you, and may be nominated as a peer reviewer for other review cycle participants.
- Peer initiated peer review: You can select which participant(s) you want to write a peer review about, without ever being asked or needing approval.
- The type of peer review included in your cycle is set by your review administrators when the cycle is created.
- Upward review: If your manager is a participant in the review cycle, you will complete an upward review about them.
- Manager review: Your manager will complete a review of you, as their direct report. If you're a manager, manager review are included in a cycle, and you have direct reports who are cycle participants, you will be asked to complete manager reviews of your direct reports.
Success Center article 🗒: Best-Self Review®: 101
Kick-off email
The day the review cycle starts, you will receive an email from your review administrators. The email will include details about the review, as well as deadlines that you should keep in mind. You can click the link in your email to be directed to your self review.
Here's an example of the review kick-off email:
You will receive additional emails throughout the review cycle informing you of deadlines, prompting you to act, and reminding you to complete upcoming tasks. For a full list of those emails, check out this article!
Self review
Time to talk about how fantastic you are! This is your opportunity to share your strengths, paint a picture of your career vision, express the challenges you have overcome, and document any other important information since your last Best-Self Review®. If you need help remembering past instances, there is a box of resources you can reference at the bottom of your assessment.
Success Center article🗒: Complete my self review
Complete my self review
You must complete your self review before the self review deadline. This deadline will be listed in the 'Overview' tab of the review cycle. You can also click on the link from your kick-off email to get to your self review. Last but not least, you'll have a to-do on your 'Home' page. If you are already in-app or aren't in your email, you can follow the steps below.
To complete your self review:
1. Click 'Best-Self Review®' from the left navigation.
2. Click on the name of the cycle you need to work on. It will be under the 'Active review cycles' section.
3. Under 'Your review to-dos', you should see a Write self review button. Click on this button to begin your self review. If not, click on the 'Write reviews' tab and ensure you're on the self review before beginning.
4. Fill out your review (there are resources for you at the bottom of your review, in case you need a refresher!) and Submit.
Edit my self review
Once your self review has been completed, your manager will get a notification and will be able to see your review. You can freely edit the review up until your manager has seen it. If your manager has already seen your self review, you have to request to edit and your manager has to allow editing.
To edit your self review, find the 'Review details' box to the left of your self review. Then click Edit review.
Visibility of your self review
If you are wondering who can see your self review, the answer is easily accessible from your self review itself. On the left side of your self review, there is a 'Review details' box (see the above screenshot). Transparency settings for your review are listed in this box.
Peer review(s)
Depending on your peer review deadlines, you may be nominating peers and completing peer reviews at the same time you're working on your self review. The biggest issue we see with the peer nomination/review process is participants who do not nominate peers in time for the peers to write their reviews. Let's talk through the steps and timeframes, so you are aware of what actions to take.
Peer nomination (nominating your peers)
- You will nominate peers to review you. Your manager can also nominate peers on your behalf during this window.
- Your manager will see the peers you nominated and will approve or deny the nominations.
- Once your manager approves or denies your nominations, the peer you nominated will be asked to accept or decline the nomination.
- Before the peer nomination deadline approaches, you should visit your 'Peer nominations' tab to check the status of the nominations you sent.
Peer nomination (you nominate yourself to review your peers)
- This option is the exception to peer reviews. Participant initiated peer reviews are by far the more common and psychologically safe way to handle peer feedback.
- You will nominate yourself to write a peer review about another review participant.
- There is no approval process here. Managers will not be able to approve/deny peer nominations before the reviews are written.
- The participant's manager will read through your peer review before it is shared with your peer.
Success Center article🗒: Nominate peers to review me
To nominate peers to review you:
1. Click 'Best-Self Review®' from the left navigation.
2. Click on the name of the cycle you need to work on. It will be under the 'Active review cycles' section.
3. On the 'Overview' page, you will see a button labeled Manage peers. Click that button to be taken to the 'Peer nominations' tab. Then use the drop-down menu to nominate your peers and click Submit.
4. You can get back to the nomination screen anytime during the cycle by clicking the 'Peer nominations' tab.
Peer approval
- This is when you have been nominated by a peer to review their performance; YOU reviewing your TEAMMATE(s).
- Their manager will first approve or deny you as one of their peers.
- If their manager approves you to be one of their peers, you need to accept or decline the nomination. Remember that if you accept 15 nominations, you are going to be asked to complete 15 peer reviews (we suggest accepting no more than four peer nominations).
- You will complete your peer reviews during the peer review window. See the 'Overview' tab to check the peer review deadline.
Success Center article🗒: Manage my peer nominations
To accept or decline peer nominations:
1. Click 'Best-Self Review®' from the left navigation.
2. Click on the name of the cycle you need to work on. It will be under the 'Active review cycles' section.
3. Click on the 'Peer nominations' tab.
4. Scroll down to the 'Peers who have nominated you' section and click Accept or Decline to review.
Peer review
- You have accepted peer nominations, and now it is time to write your peer reviews.
- Complete your peer reviews and don't forget to Submit!
- The peer's manager will receive a notification that you have completed a peer review.
- The peer's manager will look over your peer review and if settings allow, the manager can remove items that are not constructive.
- Depending on the review cycle's settings, this peer's manager may or may not be able to see the identity of the peer (you).
- Your peer reviews will not be shared with the co-worker you reviewed until their manager shares the results. This usually is the very last step in the review cycle.
- On the flip side: Your peers will complete their review of you during this same window. When your manager decides to Share results, you will be able to see the peer reviews that were written about you.
Success Center article🗒: Complete peer reviews of my teammates
To complete your peer reviews:
1. Click 'Best-Self Review®' from the left navigation.
2. Click on the name of the cycle you need to work on. It will be under the 'Active review cycles' section.
3. Click on the 'Write reviews' tab and ensure you're on the right peer review before beginning.
4. You will see the names of all peers you're nominated to review on the left side of your page, under 'Peer reviews'. Click on the name of the peer to open and start writing your peer review.
5. Remember to Submit!
Upward review (review your manager)
In order to have a review cycle that is 360 degrees, you also need to review your manager's performance. This is your time to offer constructive feedback; the goal is to help your manager grow in their leadership position. The questions selected by your review administrators should help guide your thought process during the upward review.
- After you have submitted your self review, and assuming upward reviews are included in the cycle AND your manager is a participant in the cycle, you will see the option to complete an upward review.
- If you are not asked to write an upward review, either upward reviews are not included in the cycle or your manager is not a participant in the cycle.
- Complete your upward review by the upward review deadline. See the 'Overview' tab for the upward review deadline.
- When you submit your upward review, your manager's manager will receive a notification. Your manager will not be notified of the submission and will not be able to see your review at this time.
- Your manager's manager will review the upward review you completed.
- Depending on the review cycle's settings, your manager's manager may or may not be able to see the identity of the upward review author (you).
- Your upward review will not be shared with your manager until their manager shares the results. This usually is the very last step in the review cycle.
- Depending on the review cycle's settings, your manager may or may not be able to see your identity.
Success Center article🗒: Complete an upward review of my manager
To complete your upward review:
1. Click 'Best-Self Review®' from the left navigation.
2. Click on the name of the cycle you need to work on. It will be under the 'Active review cycles' section.
3. Under 'Your review to-dos', you should see a Write upward review button. Click on this button to begin your upward review. If not, click on the 'Write reviews' tab and ensure you're on the upward review before beginning.
4. You'll see the names of all people you need to review on the left side of your page, under 'Reviews'. Click on the name of your manager to open and start writing your upward review.
Summary
Your self review, peer review(s), upward review, and your manager's review of you have all been submitted. Your manager is now preparing the Summary to share with you. 15Fives suggests that managers meet with each of their reporters to discuss the information from the review cycle. After this meeting takes place, your manager will finalize the Summary and share all reviews with you (including their manager review of you and any peer reviews from your co-workers).
To see the Summary of your reviews:
1. Click 'Best-Self Review®' from the left navigation.
2. Click on the name of the cycle you want to view the results of. It will likely be under the 'Active review cycles' section.
3. You'll land on the 'Overview' page. Find your name under the 'My reviews' section and click on it.
4. Double check that you are on the 'Summary' tab. If not, click on the 'Summary' tab and view all answers from all submitted reviews.
Are you also a manager and need help with your team's reviews and summary?
Success Center article 🗒: Manager/Reviewer review cycle tutorial
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Download or print review details (for myself)
If you would like to view and analyze review data for your own reviews, you can download or print the results from within your review page. Your results can be printed after they have been shared and finalized with you by your manager.
Success Center article🗒: Download results of my review cycle
To download or print your final data:
1. Click 'Best-Self Review®' from the left navigation.
2. Click on the name of the cycle you want to view the results of. It will likely be under the 'Active review cycles' section.
3. You'll land on the 'Overview' page. Find your name under the 'My reviews' section and click on it.
4. Click the gear icon at the top right of your reviews and then click Print. The gear icon will not appear until your reviews have been finalized by your manager.
